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[ No. LXXXIX. ] 19 George III. c. 44.-An Act for the further Relief of Protestant Dissenting Ministers and Schoolmasters.

No.

LXXXIX. 19 Geo. III.

C. 44.

Ministers, who shall take the Oaths and sub

scribe the De

claration

against Popery required by the said Act, and shall also make and subscribe the following Declaration,

WHEREAS by an Act made in the first year of the reign of King Wil liam and Queen Mary, intituled, An Act for exempting their Ma'jesties Protestant Subjects, dissenting from the Church of England, from the Penalties of certain Laws; persons dissenting from the Church of England, in holy Orders, or pretended holy Orders, or pretending to 'holy Orders, and preachers or teachers of any congregation of Dissenting 'Protestants, are required, in order to be intitled to certain exemptions, benefits, privileges, and advantages, to declare their approbation of, and to subscribe, the Articles of Religion mentioned in the Statute made in 'the thirteenth year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth (except as in the said 'Act made in the first year of the reign of King William and Queen Mary, 'is excepted): And whereas many such persons scruple to declare their approbation of, and to subscribe, the said Articles not excepted as afore'said: For giving ease to such scrupulous persons in the exercise of Reli'gion:' may it please your Majesty that it may be enacted; and be it enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this Protestant present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, That Dissenting every person dissenting from the Church of England, in holy Orders, or pretended holy Orders, or pretending to holy Orders, being a preacher or teacher of any congregation of Dissenting Protestants, who, if he scruple to declare and subscribe as aforesaid, shall take the Oaths, and make and subscribe the Declaration against Popery, required by the said Act, in the first year of the reign of king William and Queen Mary, to be taken, made, and subscribed by Protestant Dissenting Ministers, and shall also make and subscribe a Declaration in the words following: videlicet, 'I A. B. do solemnly declare, in the presence of Almighty God, that 'I am a Christian and a Protestant, and as such, that I believe that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament, as commonly received among 'Protestant Churches, do contain the revealed Will of God; and that I do receive the same as the rule of my Doctrine and Practice.' shall be, and every such person is hereby declared to be, intitled to all the exemptions, benefits, privileges, and advantages, granted to Protestant Dissenting Ministers by the said Act, made in the first year of the reign of King William and Queen Mary; and by an Act, made in the tenth year of the reign of Queen Anne, intituled, An Act for preserving the Protestant Religion, by better securing the Church of England, as by Law established; and for confirming the Toleration granted to Protestant Dissenters by an Act, intituled, An Act for exempting their Majesties Protestant Subjects, dissenting from the Church of England, from the Penalties of certain Laws;' and for supplying the Defects thereof; and for the further securing the Protestant succession, by requiring the practisers of the Law in North Britain to take the Oaths and subscribe the Declaration therein mentioned; and the Justices of the Peace at the General Session of the Peace to be holden for the county or place where any Protestant Dissenting Minister shall live, are hereby required to tender and administer the said last-mentioned Decla ration to such Minister, upon his offering himself to make and subscribe the same, and thereof to keep a register; and such Minister shall not give or pay, as a Fee or Reward to any Officer or Officers belonging to the Court aforesaid, above the sum of six-pence for his or their entry of such Minister's making and subscribing the said last-mentioned Declaration, and taking the Oaths, and making and subscribing the Declaration against Popery, required by the said Act, made in the first year of the reign of King William and Queen Mary, to be taken, made, and subscribed by Protestant Dissenting Ministers; nor above the sum of six-pence for any certificate thereof to be made out and signed by the officer or officers of and shall be the said Court; and every such person, qualifying himself as aforesaid, exempted from

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shall be intitled to all the Privileges granted by the Toleration Act, Anne for conand by 10 firming the same, &c.

No.

LXXXIX. 19 Geo. III.

c. ᏎᏎ.

serving in the Militia, and from any punishment by virtue of the

Act of Uniformity.

Dissenters allowed to in

struct Youth.

No Dissenter
to hold the

Mastership of
any College or
School of Royal
Foundation,

&c.

1 W. and M. and this Act, to be deemed Publick Acts.

No. XC.

c. 49.

shall be exempted from serving in the Militia of this Kingdom; and shall also be exempted from any imprisonment, or other punishment, by virtue of an Act, made in the thirteenth and fourteenth years of the reign of King Charles the Second, intituled, An Act for the Uniformity of Public Prayers and Administration of Sacraments, and other Rites and Ceremonies; and for establishing the Form of making, ordaining, and consecrating Bishops, Priests, and Deacons, in the Church of England; or by an Act made in the fifteenth year of the same reign, intituled, An Act for Relief of such Persons as by Sickness, or other Impediment, were disabled from subscribing the Declaration in the Act of Uniformity, and Explanation of part of the said Act; for preaching or officiating in any congregation of Protestant Dissenters, for the exercise of Religion permitted and allowed by Law.

II. And be it further enacted by the Authority aforesaid, That no Dissenting Minister, nor any other Protestant dissenting from the Church of England, who shall take the aforesaid Oaths, and make and subscribe the above-mentioned Declaration against Popery, and the Declaration hereinbefore mentioned, shall be prosecuted in any Court whatsoever, for teaching and instructing youth as a tutor or schoolmaster, any Law or Statute to the contrary notwithstanding.

III. Provided always, That nothing in this Act contained shall extend, or be construed to extend, to the enabling of any person dissenting from the Church of England, to obtain or hold the Mastership of any College or School of Royal Foundation, or of any other endowed College or school for the education of Youth, unless the same shall have been founded since the first year of the reign of their late Majesties King William and Queen Mary, for the immediate use and benefit of Protestant Dissenters.

IV. And whereas it hath been doubted, whether the said Act, made in the first year of the reign of King William and Queen Mary, be a publick · or private Act;' Be it enacted and declared, That the said Act, and also this present Act, shall be adjudged, deemed, and taken to be publick Acts; and shall be judicially taken notice of as such, by all Judges, Justices, and other persons whomsoever, without specially pleading them, or either of them.

[No. XC.] 21 George III. c. 49-An Act for preventing certain Abuses and Profanations on the Lord's Day, called Sunday.

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WHEREAS certain houses, rooms, or places, within the cities of London or Westminster, or in the neighbourhood thereof, have of late 21 Geo. III. frequently been opened for publick entertainment or amusement upon 'the evening of the Lord's Day, commonly called Sunday; and at other 'houses, rooms, or places, within the said cities, or in the neighbourhood 'thereof, under pretence of inquiring into religious Doctrines, and explaining Texts of holy Scripture, debates have frequently been held on 'the evening of the Lord's Day, concerning divers Texts of holy Scripture, by persons unlearned and incompetent to explain the same, to the corruption of good morals, and to the great encouragement of irreligion and profaneness;' Be it enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, That, from and after the passing of this present Act, any house, room, or other place, which shall be opened or used for publick entertainment or amusement, or for publickly debating on any subject whatsoever, upon any part of the Lord's Day called Sunday, and to which persons shall be admitted by the payment of money, or by tickets sold for money, shall be deemed a disorderly house or place; and the Keeper of such house, room, or place, shall forfeit the sum of two hundred pounds for every day that such house, room or place, shall be opened or used as aforesaid on the Lord's Day, to such Person as will sue for the same, and be otherwise punishable as the Law directs in Cases of disorderly Houses, and the person managing or conducting such entertainment or

Houses, &c. opened on a Sunday, to which Persons shall be ad

mitted by pay ment, &c. shall be deemed a disorderly House, &c.

6

No. XC.

21-Geo. III. c. 49.

The Person who acts as Master or Mistress in any

such House

shall be deem

ed the Owner thereof.

amusement on the Lord's Day, or acting as master of the ceremonies there, or as moderator, president, or chairman, of any such meeting for public debate on the Lord's Day, shall likewise, for every such offence, forfeit the sum of one hundred pounds to such person as will sue for the same; and every doorkeeper, servant, or other person, who shall collect or receive money or tickets from persons assembling at such house, room, or place, on the Lord's Day, or who shall deliver out tickets for admitting persons to such house, room, or place, on the Lord's Day, shall also forfeit the sum of fifty pounds to such person as will sue for the same. II. And whercas, by reason of the many subtile and crafty contri" vances of persons keeping such houses, rooms, or places as aforesaid, it may often be difficult to prove who is the real owner or keeper thereof;' Be it enacted by the authority aforesaid, That any person who shall at any time hereafter appear, act, or behave him or herself as Master or Mistress, or as the person having the care, government, or management of any such house, room, or place as aforesaid, shall be deemed and taken to be the Keeper thereof, and shall be liable to be sued or prosecuted, and punished as such, notwithstanding he or she be not in fact the real Owner or Keeper thereof: And wherever any such house, room, or place, shall belong to or be kept by divers persons in partnership, as joint owners or joint-keepers thereof, each and every such joint-owner or jointkeeper of such house, room, or place, shall be deemed the Keeper thereof, and shall be liable to be sued or prosecuted, and punished as such: And any house, room, or place, at which persons shall be supplied with tea, coffee, or any other refreshments of eating or drinking on the Lord's Day, at any greater prices than the common and usual prices at which the like Penalties inrefreshments are commonly sold upon other days at such house, room, or flicted by this place, or at coffee-houses, or other houses where the same are usually Act. sold, shall be deemed a house, room, or place, to which persons are admitted by the payment of money, although money be not there taken in the name of or for admittance, or at the time when persons enter into or depart from such house, room, or place; and any house, room, or place, which shall be open or used for any publick entertainment or amusement, or for publick debate, on the Lord's Day, at the expence of any number of subscribers or contributors to the carrying on any such entertainment or amusement, or debate, on the Lord's Day, and to which persons shall be admitted by tickets, to which the subscribers or contributors shall be intitled, shall be deemed a house, room, or place, to which persons are admitted by the payment of money, within the meaning of this Act.

All Houses where Refreshments are sold at greater Prices on Sunother days, &c. days than on liable to the

III. And for the better preventing persons assembling on the Lord's Penalty on adDay for such irreligious purposes as aforesaid; Be it further enacted by vertising, &c. the authority aforesaid, That any person advertising, or causing to be advertised, any publick entertainment or amusement, or any publick meeting for debating on any subject whatsoever, on the Lord's Day, to which persons are to be admitted by the payment of money, or by tickets sold for money, and any person printing or publishing any such Advertisement, shall respectively forfeit the sum of fifty pounds for every such offence, to any person who will sue for the same.

IV. And be it further enacted, by the authority aforesaid, That any Penalties, how person intitled to either of the aforesaid Forfeitures, may sue for the same to be recoby Action of Debt in any of his Majesty's Courts of Record at Westminster, vered. in which it shall be sufficient to declare, that the Defendant is indebted to the Plaintiff in the sum of

[ being the sum de

manded by the said Action], being forfeited by an Act made in the twentyfirst year of the reign of his Majesty King George the Third, intituled, An Act for preventing certain Abuses and Profanations on the Lord's Day called Sunday; and the Plaintiff, if he recover in any such Action, shall have his full Costs.

V. Provided, That no Action shall be brought for either of the said Penal- Actions within ties by this Act imposed, unless the same be brought within six calendar six months. months next after the offence committed.

3

No XC.

21 Geo. III.

VI. Provided also, That if any Action or Suit shall be brought against any person for any thing done in pursuance and in execution of this Act, the Defendant may plead the General Issue; and if a verdict pass for the Defendant, or the Plaintiff discontinue his or her Action, or be nonsuited, General Issue. or judgment be given against the Plaintiff, then such Defendant shall have treble Costs. Treble Costs.

c. 49.

VII. Provided also, That the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction within this Act not to af- Realm shall not by this Act be altered or abridged; but that the Ecclesiastical Courts may punish the said offences, as if this Act had not been made.

fect Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction;

nor Toleration Act.

No. XCI.

31 Geo. III.

c. 32.

VIII. Provided also, That nothing in this Act contained shall be construed to extend to take away, alter, or abridge, any of the liberties or immunities to which the Protestant subjects of this Kingdom are intitled, by an Act made in the first year of the reign of King William and Queen Mary, intituled, An Act for exempting their Majesties Protestant Subjects, dissenting from the Church of England, from the Penalties of certain Laws.

[ No. XCI.] 31 George III. c. 32.-An Act to relieve, upon Conditions, and under Restrictions, the Persons therein described, from certain Penalties and Disabilities to which Papists, or Persons professing the Popish Religion, are by Law subject.

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WHEREAS, by divers Laws now in force, divers penalties and disabilities have been imposed on Papists or persons professing the Popish Religion, or holding communion with the See of Rome, and their children, and certain principles have been attributed to them which are Preamble. dangerous to Society and civil Liberty, and which they are willing to 'disclaim: And whereas it is expedient that such persons as shall take the Oath of Allegiance, Abjuration, and Declaration hereinafter men'tioned, shall be relieved from some of the penalties and disabilities aforeRoman Catho-said:' May it therefore please your Majesty that it may be enacted; licks may make and be it enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the the following advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, Declaration in this present Parliament assembled, and by the Authority of the same, and Oath, That, from and after the twenty-fourth day of June one thousand seven which are to hundred and ninety-one, it shall be lawful for persons professing the remain in the Roman Catholick religion, personally to appear in any of his Majesty's Court of Record where Courts of Chancery, King's Bench, Common Pleas, or Exchequer, at made. Westminster, or in any Court of General Quarter-Sessions of and for the county, city, or place, where such person shall reside, and there, in open Court, between the hours of nine in the morning and two in the afternoon, take, make and subscribe the following Declaration and Oath; videlicet, 'I A. B. do hereby declare, That I do profess the Roman Catholick religion.'

Declaration.

Oath.

I A. B. do sincerely promise and swear, That I will be faithful ' and bear true Allegiance to his Majesty King George the Third, and him • will defend to the utmost of my power against all conspiracies and attempts 'whatever that shall be made against his person, crown or dignity; and I 'will do my utmost endeavour to disclose and make known to his Majesty, his heirs and successors, all treasons and traitorous conspiracies which may be formed against him or them: And I do faithfully promise to maintain, support, and defend, to the utmost of my power, the succes'sion of the Crown; which succession, by an Act, intituled, An Act for the further Limitation of the Crown, and better securing the Rights and 'Liberties of the Subject, is, and stands limited to the Princess Sophia, Electress and Duchess Dowager of Hanover, and the heirs of her body, 'being Protestants; hereby utterly renouncing and abjuring any obedience

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or allegiance unto any other person claiming or pretending a right to the

No. XCI.

Crown of these Realms: And I do swear, That I do reject and detest, 31 Geo. III.

as an unchristian and impious position, that it is lawful to murder or

c. 32.

destroy any person or persons whatsoever, for or under pretence of their being Hereticks or Infidels; and also that unchristian and impious prin'ciple, that faith is not to be kept with Hereticks or Infidels: And I 'further declare, That it is not an article of my faith, and that I do renounce, reject and abjure the opinion, that Princes excommunicated by 'the Pope and Council, or any authority of the See of Rome, or by any authority whatsoever, may be deposed or murdered by their Subjects, or any person whatsoever: And I do promise, that I will not hold, maintain, or abet any opinion, or any other opinions contrary to what is ex'pressed in this Declaration: And I do declare, That I do not believe, that the Pope of Rome, or any other foreign Prince, Prelate, State, or Potentate, hath, or ought to have any temporal or civil jurisdiction, power, superiority, or pre-eminence, directly or indirectly, within this Realm: And I do solemnly, in the presence of God, profess, testify, and declare, ⚫ that I do make this Declaration, and every part thereof, in the plain ' and ordinary sense of the words of this Oath, without any evasion, equivocation, or mental reservation whatever; and without any dispensation already granted by the Pope, or any authority of the See of Rome, or any person whatever; and without thinking that I am or can be acquitted before God or man, or absolved of this Declaration, or any part thereof, although the pope or any other person whatsoever shall dispense with or 'annul the same, or declare that it was null or void. So help me God.' Which said Declaration and Oath shall be subscribed by the person taking and making the same with the name at length, if such person can write, or with his mark, the name being written by the Officer, where such person cannot write, such person or such Officer, as the case may be, adding the title, addition and place of abode, of such person, and shall remain in such Court of Record: And the proper Officer of such Court respectively, with whom the custody of such Record shall remain, shall make, subscribe, and deliver a certificate of such Declaration and Oath having been duly made, taken, and subscribed, to the person who shall have so made, taken and Declaration subscribed the same, if the same shall be demanded, immediately, for and Oath hav which certificate there shall be paid no greater Fee or Reward than two ing been made, shillings; and such certificate, upon proof of the certifier's hand, and that which shall be be acted as such Officer, shall be competent and sufficient evidence of sufficient Evisuch persons having duly made, taken, and subscribed such Declaration dence. and Oath, unless the same shall be falsified.

Officer of the Court to delicates of the

ver Certifi

II. And be it further enacted, That the said Officer with whom such Lists of the Records are kept as aforesaid, shall, yearly, on or before the twenty-fifth Persons who day of December, transmit to the clerk of his Majesty's most honourable Privy Council, lists of the persons, with their titles, additions, and places of abode, who shall have made and subscribed such Declaration and Oath in the preceding year.

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III. And whereas, by an Act passed in the first year of the reign of her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth, intituled, An Act for the Uniformity of "Common Prayer and Service of the Church, and Administration of the 'Sacraments; and by several other Acts, namely, an Act passed in the twenty-third year of the reign of her said late Majesty, intituled, An Act

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shall have taken the Oath to be transmit

ted to the Clerk of the Privy Council annually.

1 Eliz. C. 2.

to retain the Queen's Majesty's Subjects in their due Obedience; an Act 23 Eliz. c. 1.

passed in the twenty-ninth year of the reign of her said late Majesty, in

tituled, An Act for the more speedy and due Execution of certain Branches 29 Eliz. c. 6.

of the Statute made in the twenty-third year of the Queen's Majesty's reign,

'intituled, An Act to retain the Queen's Majesty's Subjects in their due

'Obedience; an Act passed in the thirty-fifth year of the reign of her said

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late Majesty, intituled, An Act for restraining of Popish Recusants to 35 Eliz. c. 2. some certain Places of abode; an Act passed in the second, or, as it is commonly called, in the first year of the reign of his late Majesty King 2 (vulgo 1) James the First, intituled, An Act for the due Execution of the Statutes Jac. 1. c. 4;

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